Alpha and Omega

Chapter 25

Bucky and Gwen reluctantly climbed out of their nest of pillows and blankets and got dressed for the meeting. Gwen even remember to put on shoes that time, despite how much she hated shoes. She took Bucky's hand as they made their way down to the debriefing room. He smiled down at her, lucky to have the little werewolf as his own.

Steve waited until everyone was seated around the meeting room's table before he spoke. "We've got a mission and we need Gwen for it," he told the group, though he knew Bucky wouldn't like it. Bucky's hand tightened on Gwen's, though he managed to otherwise keep his cool. Externally. Internally? His mind was in chaos. He didn't want to put the omega in danger.

Gwen squeezed Bucky's hand back reassuringly. "What's the mission?" she asked softly.

"We got a lead on one of Hydra's big wigs, but we haven't been able to keep a trace on him to track him back to Hydra's base. You and your nose can," Steve explained while the others listened. Bucky understood the plan when Steve gave more details of which Hydra official they were looking for.

He just wished that someone else could do it.

"We can't exactly hide a husky-sized wolf," Nat told Steve practically. "People are bound to notice, especially one off leash," they really couldn't hide a wolf easily in the city. Gwen's nose was better in wolf form than in human form, so she would have to shift for this mission, though. Bucky, however, never wanted her on a leash, he wanted her to always be free, now that she finally knew what freedom was. They had to figure out how to keep Steve happy and have Gwen go on the mission, but not piss off the werewolf or her boyfriend. Bucky looked to Gwen, wondering if she had any ideas how to appease everyone.

Gwen shrugged. "Pack magic will keep people thinking I'm a dog," she told them.

Loki sighed, looking put-upon "If you will consent to the collar, i can make an illusion of a leash that will be believable," he offered. The collar was necessary in case something went really wrong and she ended up at the pound. And the collar would have a tracking device to find her in case she was captured. And knowing Loki, it would likely have tracking spells in it as well. He could be overprotective when he cared about someone. And he liked the little werewolf. Gwen nodded, she could accept that compromise. Bucky never grumbled, he took her judgment, though he never wanted her to be collared or leashed.

"We should head out soon. He'll be at the coffee shop in an hour," Steve told the group once the details were settled. Bucky had insisted on being the one to walk with Gwen, refusing to be separated from her.

Bucky and Gwen were to walk the area around the coffee shop, he was just holding his hand in the air. It felt stupid. Even though he and everyone else could see a leash from his hand to the werewolf padding on four feet next to him, like a well-trained dog. There was a magically created silver-colored collar around her neck with a red tag listing Bucky's name and contact information as who to contact. When she had changed forms wearing nothing but that and her skin, it had nearly driven Bucky crazy Bucky went around thinking about anything to keep that image out of his mind.

At least until after the mission.

He'd still had to excuse himself to the bathroom to relieve that particular issue before they left. Gwen politely hadn't pointed out that she could smell that he had. Instead she'd noted it for future reference and licked his cheek before they'd headed out.

Maybe the collar wasn't such a bad thing after all...

They stayed near the coffeeshop, where Gwen went over to sniff at Nat, who cooed over the puppy and petted her, all part of the act to keep Gwen and Bucky in the area. "There he is," Steve said into the comm in Bucky's ear, indicating the man who just walked into the coffeeshop. He was a bear of a man, hulking and muscled. Bucky imagined his Gwen against that and shivered.

Gwen didn't have to fight him. She just had to follow his scent. Bucky had to keep reminding himself of that. They made their way to the door so she could catch the scent. She yipped softly when she had it and started to follow the trail. Bucky had to walk faster to match her pace. She followed the trail which led them to a warehouse where a bunch of men were loading boxes into a truck marked with the shield logo. "We're taking all this shit to HQ?" one of the men whined.

Bucky recognized the logo and knew it wasn't good. Bucky whispered to the comm. "They're using Shield's truck and some of our workers..."

"We need to find out where the headquarters is. We can't lose that truck," Steve replied urgently and Gwen whined. "We need to do whatever we can!" She could hear the conversation with her enhanced hearing and knew what she had to do, even if Bucky wouldn't agree to her idea.

"She can't track the vehicle. But I got its plates!" He wrote them down and texted the team the information so Jarvis could track the truck. It was the best he could do. He wasn't willing to put Gwen in danger. He and Cap continued to argue quietly about it, as Cap was being incredibly unreasonable for once.

But Gwen had other ideas. She couldn't track one vehicle, but she could sneak onto one truck and was gone from Bucky's side while he was arguing with Cap. Bucky didn't feel any pull on the leash because the leash wasn't real.

He looked down and saw that she was gone, the truck pulling away.

Bucky's heart leapt in his chest and fell at the same time. His omega, his love, was in danger. He should've watched her more closely. He should never have let her come on this mission.

He couldn't bear it if anything happened to her on her first mission.

He was going to kill her for scaring him like this.

After he kissed her so thoroughly when he got her back.